I-I honestly don't know what to say....it's been almost three months since I opened the 'Gimorio Da Vinci' and 90 percent of the manuscript is useless to me. There was nothing in the book that could give me any help or guidance on how to activate my powers to use magic. Most of the volume was filled with hypothetical spells and advance machinery for his time but they're....they've already been done in my era. Now don't get me wrong. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, is a brilliant man and had some mind blowing inventions and theories on the scientific and mystical nature of the world. It's just...well it's just that after almost 500 years the world had finally caught up and moved on further than what he could have ever imagined. Like in the grimoire Leonardo had a theory where if you take two strands of magic threads that has been reduced to the smallest and tiniest size that you can manage. And then you smash them into each other at a very high speed, it can create very deadly and powerful explosion that ALSO might create a new magical substance. This is just an atom bomb and a particle accelerator in today's day and age. Now being the peace loving hippie that Leonardo was, I don't think he could've imagined that he almost gave the world a way to create weapons of mass destruction centuries ahead of our timeline. But nonetheless, he still came up with concepts that were WAY a head of his time.
He did mention some of his more 'well known' works in the grimoire but man, they are well beyond what the public knows. Like his mechanical knight, to the modern world it's just armor on top of some incomplete gears that might move back and forth if it were a finished project. However in his grimoire the main issue for the knight is power. Without a source of power the gears won't move and the knight is nothing more than puppet. If he had gotten his hands on a steam engine or hell even a combustion engine, he could've created the very first functioning robot. The same thing can be said about his tank. If he could've had access to an engine back then, there's no doubt that he could've jump started the auto industry and propelled humanity centuries ahead of time....Man for a guy who supposedly love peace and nature he sure came up with a lot of machines of war. Welp it was a good thing that after his death he became famous for his art and prediction of future technology instead of his ideas for mass destruction.
Now as I said before almost everything in his grimoire is useless to me, I can't produce any of his spells and most of his ideas have already been accomplished in the modern world with modern technology. However, the one thing that's been very helpful and my ticket to staying here a little longer is his pen. According to his grimoire, the 'Ink of Innovation' was not a relic that was entirely created by himself. It was a passion project between him and another engineer at the time. His partner was the one who gathered all the materials for the pen, they both designed the mechanism and function but it was him who created the enchantment to allow the pen to function as it currently is.....which is fucking crazy because how the fuck does someone in the 15th century gain access to these materials. The pen....it can cut through anything I've tested on. My wooden table? Cut. The wall in my room? CUT. The flooring I live on? CUT! The candle holder by my window? MELTED. A relic I borrowed from Master Kaecilius? It no longer works because the metal started to melt under the nip of the pen...I have a very odd suspicion that the pen is not made with normal material. Certainly not material some Renaissance polymath can just come across. Well he was a sorcerer so he probably did collect some rare and special materials throughout his life but he never mentioned anything about how his companion collected the material...oh well it's in my hands now and that's all that matters. Beggars can't be choosers and I ain't asking any questions about a free meal.
Anyways this pen the 'Ink of Innovation' is exactly what it sounds like. It's a relic that requires the user to think outside the box. Something that not a lot of people can do, yet everyone has the potential and ability to achieve. According to the grimoire the pen turns energy into ink for the sorcerer to use. Magic energy was the original source that the pen was intended for but it can use almost any type of energy. From electricity to thermal energy to kinetic energy, hell even just taping the pen to make it vibrate is enough energy to activate the damn thing. I don't know if Leonardo never encountered the other types of magic energy in our universe but I'm 70 percent sure that even the other schools of magic can be used to power this relic. But since I myself can't produce any magic, I've been using a makeshift battery attachment to power the damn thing. By using just a 9Volt battery I can power the pen for about a day. It's a very expensive process but not for the reasons you might think. The pen can cut and carve anything just fine without any power but when the relic is activated, it can do things that I can only describe as magic because I have never heard or seen anyone be able to alter someone else's spell.
The 'Ink of Innovation' is an ingenious tool that allows the user to not only create relics that can perform better than your typical enchantment but it can also edit the enchantment in already existing relics as well as rewrite other spells. I was only able to discover it's property of editing and cancelling spells when I accidentally killed the relic that Master Kaecilius loan to me. Since then I've been practicing my calligraphy on anything and everything to create new but simple relics. Now my new routine for the last two months has been exercising in the morning, class with the regular apprentices after breakfast, training with Master Kaecilius after lunch, continuing my personal studies until dinner and lastly practicing my engraving of spells on to different objects and materials until bedtime. I don't know how but I keep on managing to add more and more stuff to my already jammed packed schedule. I still wake up fine and refresh after each night like it's not an issue but I want some free time to fuck around too damnit.
Oh and yeah I started going to regular class now. I know I still can't produce a single spark of magic but because I'm a direct disciple of a master and my comprehension has proven to be of satisfaction for the Ancient One, I've been made an exception to the rules. Well that and because I was able to convince the Sorcerer Supreme that I plan on becoming an Artificer since I don't really have any other options. Which I think is going by pretty well because so far I've produced a ton of almost-useless-single-use relics in my practices of making new relics. Now apparently the Ancient One had never heard of the term Artificer because there has never been a need for one. Almost every sorcerer and any sorcerer can create a relic with no difficulty. All it requires is for someone to draw out a spell and then imprint the spell onto an object. Well that's just for very simple relics. Items like the 'Cloak of Levitation' or the 'Eye of Aggomoto' or the 'Wand of Watoom' require much more complicated procedures in order to create. Hell the 'Cloak of Levitation' somehow have more life and personality in it's fabric than most of the people in the movies. COUGH-and this book-COUGH
Anyways ever since I've been studying relics and how to create them, I've been looking at enchantments and relics in a different way. I'm always trying to dissect and recreate the process of the relic in my mind whenever I could get my hands on a relic....I swear I had never fondle and grope a relic before. I'm a pervert for legs and watermelon crushing thunder thighs, not inanimate objects that may or may not have a personality to them. SIGH. The more I do these internal monologue the more I feel like I'm in a bad anime. Okay back to the main topic. Every month I try to recreate the spells of two relics and at the end of the month I'll try making a new relic that's similar to the affects I've been studying however it's different enough to not just be another copy. When it comes to materials, I'm not really using the materials I should be using. There's only so much metal to go around in Kamar-Taj and since I don't have my own personal furnace to smelt down failed relics or homework, all I can really use is wood and stones. Metal is the best type of material to use for housing spells and turning into relics because it can last for a long time and most surviving ancient relics are made from some type of metal. However any solid material can be turned into a relic for example: the 'Cloak of Levitation' or the 'Vaulting Boots of Valtorr'. Since I'm trying to ball on a budget I chose to use the most wasteful but cost effective method to walk the path of artificering. So my canvas of choice is scrap wood and stone rubbles that I could get for cheap in the streets of Karthmandu.
Man am I glad I got the special privilege to leave the school for supplies. I mean I could just leave whenever I want because I'm not held against my will here but I just don't have the time to fuck around in the streets if I want to take magic seriously. Whenever I would go out for my art supplies I usually grab a bite or two of the street food because I miss my spices and good food man. It's enough to make me want to stay away forever but I need to think about the long term and how I'll stay alive once destiny arrives to balance out the universe. Hell that's still at least a decade away from me, what I really need to worry about is the invasion of New York City and the weekend of Ultron that about four to six years away from me. If my timeline does not go right, I need to have a method to ensuring my survival in this life time. Who knows maybe I'll end this play through just like my previous one with an encounter with Truck-kun.
Welp now that were pretty much all caught up to what I've been doing in the last couple of weeks it's time for the next story arc. Tonight I'm packing up some of my relics and supplies for camping because I'll be going on my first official training mission. There has been reports of some supernatural events going on in South East Asia. Witnesses seeing recently buried corpses standing at the edge of villages and the jungle late at night. Apparently when the villagers went to go check on the recently buried grave, a lot of plots were dug out with no regards for them. It could just be a case of grave robbers and someone trying to scare the locals but the Sorcerer Supreme suspects that there's something else at play here. But since the sightings encompass a couple of villages and it's not serious enough to send a lot of man power there, only a small group of students will be sent to scout the area and assess the situation.